Garda found ‘very heavily decomposed’ remains in tank
MURDER accused Patrick Quirke told a garda sent to supervise the emptying of slurry tanks in the search for Bobby Ryan that there were just two tanks on the farm.
Garda Conor Ryan gave evidence at the Central Criminal Court, saying he had relied upon Mr Quirke to tell him the location of tanks on the farm at Fawnagowan, Co Tipperary.
Arrangements were made for him to meet Mr Quirke at the property and to get him to empty the tanks with a tractor and tanker.
Mr Quirke’s demeanour was “calm”, he told the jury.
Mr Quirke (50), of Breanshamore, Co Tipperary, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Ryan – a part-time DJ known as ‘Mr Moonlight’ – on a date between June 3, 2011 and April 2013.
The trial heard that one of the tanks was located at the top of the farm and was in a slatted shed, where waste from cattle was collected, he said. When he looked through the manhole cover, he saw there was no slurry in it.
The other was an open tank in the farm yard which contained a “small quantity” of slurry. This was sucked out and spread on the land, Gda Ryan said, estimating it had taken “four goes” to empty it.
“After this process I had a conversation with Mr Quirke and asked him if they were the only two tanks on the farm and he told me they were, judge,” Gda Ryan said.
Nothing of evidential value was found in the search, he told the court. Asked what the purpose of his visit, he replied that it was a “missing person investigation”.
He could not recall the exact date of the emptying of the tanks but said he believed it was “four to five days” after the initial search of the farm on June 7, 2011.
Gda Ryan was also present at the scene when the body of Mr Ryan was uncovered in the tank on April 30, 2013. He told the trial he knelt down and looked into the tank, seeing “a very badly decomposed body”.
Asked if he had observed anything else, Gda Ryan replied that he saw a hose running into the tank that was attached onto a vacuum tanker and tractor.
He observed the vacuum pump was placed in a neutral position, adding: “It wasn’t sucking at the time.”
When he looked into the tanker he noticed there were no fresh markings on the inside. He went to the nearby cow shed with the slatted floor and noticed that the slurry in this tank was “heavily crusted”, he told the court.
Gda Ryan was asked to move the tanker from the area where Mr Ryan’s body lay and to empty the contents. He explained to the court that he was able to do this because he came from a “family farm”.
He emptied the contents of the tanker onto the ground,